Expertise And Ignorance: We Are All Ignorant—Some of Us Know It and Some Of Us Don’t

Intelligence and Intellectual style

Although highly controversial, Robert Sapolsky (2017) offers research findings regarding the relationship between intelligence and ideological perspective. He findings that he offers suggests that lower intelligence predicts adherence to conservative ideologies. These findings might, in turn, suggest a preference among those embracing these ideologies for dualistic thinking, as well as a strong pull toward balance and consonance. At the very least these findings point to a specific constellation of personality attributes that are aligned with a conservative perspective.

It is at this point that psychologist (and Robert Sapolsky in particular) are touching on the “third rail” of social psychology. They can rightfully be accused of bringing their own political leanings into the conversation. Over the past century this bias has been found coming from both the left wing and right wing. It seems that the critique of political biases may itself come with a strong bias. Even the analysis offered in this essay might reflect the biases of the authors. None of us are immune and we must all “come clean” regarding our vantage point.

The most famous (and controversial) of the studies being done regarding the perspectives and competencies of those holding specific political views was conducted in the 1950s.by a group of young psychologists at the University of California and a noted philosopher, Theodor Adorno (Adorno, et al., 1950; Adorno, 2020). These researchers found that those people who exhibit Authoritarian Personalities tend to be uncomfortable with ambiguity. By contrast, liberal thinkers “think harder”! Now, more than seventy years later, Robert Sapolsky quotes political scientist Philip Tetlock’s research suggesting that “leftists” have a greater capacity for “integrative complexity”.

These findings (and conclusions) from both the 1950s and 2020s can be applied to the challenges we face as a society about a complex and challenging social condition such as Covid 19. Conservative leaders and experts are likely to downplay or reject scientific facts being put forward. Are they somehow less “bright” than their liberal colleagues and liberal -leading experts? Furthermore, it is possible that conservative thinkers are more likely to default to belief of authoritarian leaders who provide simple and absolute answers. By contrast, liberal thinkers are more likely to question and challenge simple answers. Conservatism is easily equated with Dualism. Liberalism is then equated with higher-order Multiplicity. Is this simple differentiation between Conservatism and Lliberalism itself a Dualism? Do we all regress to an early stage of cognitive development “when the going gets tough?”